To Die Like a Man (2009)
The Anguish of Identity
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: April 7, 2011
http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/movies/joao-pedro-rodriguess-to-die-like-a-man-review.html"To Die Like a Man," a ruminative exploration of gender identity, desire and aging, begins with a close-up of a young man's face being daubed with camouflage paint by a fellow soldier in preparation for a training mission. For the rest of this melancholic film by the Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues that image lingers as a mental double exposure with the visage of the movie's protagonist, Tonia (Fernando Santos), a fading drag queen in 1980s Lisbon. The war paint and makeup worn by Tonia, who appears in various stages of drag, are both disguises.
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REVIEW | Transgender Melancholia in Portuguese "To Die Like a Man"
by Eric Kohn (Updated 18 hours, 48 minutes ago)
http://www.indiewire.com/article/2011/04/07/review_transgender_melancholia_in_portuguese_to_die_like_a_manPortuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues has carved out a niche in contemporary queer cinema over the past ten years with a trio of confrontational, subversive features. After completing "The Phantom" in 2000, Rodrigues continued his rise with the Cannes Directors Fortnight entry "Two Drifters" in 2005, and reached the pinnacle of his still-young career with 2009's "To Die Like a Man."
Although it played at Cannes that year and eventually found U.S. distribution, "To Die Like a Man" only now arrives Stateside, long after Portugal submitted it as the country's entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar.
